SCHLITTER TAKES OVER NEC WINS LEAD WITH HIS NINTH

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – Sophomore Jordan Mountford (Guelph, Ont.) homered and scored two runs and junior Craig Schlitter (Guilford, Conn.) earned his league-leading ninth victory as the Bryant University baseball team defeated Wagner 2-1 in game one of their doubleheader on Friday afternoon at the Richmond County Bank Ballpark. The Bulldogs won game two, 4-1.

The Bulldogs (39-15-1, 26-5 NEC) set a Northeast Conference record with their 26th league victory of the season, surpassing the previous record of 25 they set during the 2010 season. The Seahawks (24-30, 16-15) have now lost their last five games.

GAME ONE

Schlitter was dominant for the third-straight week, striking out four and allowing just four hits in 6.1 innings. He tossed a perfect first before allowing back-to-back singles to start the second. A ground out put runners on the corners with one out but Schlitter got a strikeout and a ground ball to third to end the threat. The ground ball started a string of 16-straight batters retired until Chase Gray doubled with one out in the bottom of the seventh. Wagner scored its only run off Schlitter as Ben Ruta followed with a single up the middle. Senior Salvatore Lisanti (Bronx, N.Y.) was then summoned from the bullpen and retired the final two batters to earn his ninth save of the year. With the win, Schlitter is now 7-0 with a 0.81 ERA against league opponents.

The Bulldogs got the only offense they would need with single runs in the first and fifth innings. Mountford led off the game with a single through the left side, stole second and scored on a two-out double from classmate John Mullen (Walpole, Mass.).

Mountford made it a point to give Bryant some breathing room in the fifth inning. After working the count to 3-1, he belted a solo home run over the wall in right field to make it 2-0. The round-tripper was the third of the season for Mountford.

In the first two games of the series, Mountford has six hits and two RBI. Rinn extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a single.

GAME TWO

Graduate student John Healy (Cranston, R.I.) earned his eighth win with six innings of one-run ball as the Bulldogs completed the sweep in game two.

The left-hander scattered three hits, struck out three and didn't walk a batter to improve to 8-1 on the year. Healy allowed his only run in the fifth and worked out of his only other trouble in the fourth as he worked around a two-out triple. Senior Joseph Michaud (Milford, Conn.) picked up his second save in as many weeks with a scoreless seventh. It was interesting, however, as the Seahawks loaded the bases with no outs. Michaud escaped the jam by fielding a sharp comebacker to start a 1-2-3 double play and then inducing a game-ending ground ball to third.

The teams played scoreless through the first three innings before the Bulldogs scored three runs in the fourth. Senior Kevin Brown (Northborough, Mass.) started the inning with a walk and was on third after a pair of wild pitches resulted in a walk to Mullen. Sophomore Carl Anderson (Sudbury, Mass.) then gave Bryant the lead with a fielder's choice ground ball to short. After a walk put runners on first and second, the Seahawks threw away a potential inning-ending double play, allowing Anderson to score all the way from second. Sophomore Daniel St. George (Shelton, Conn.) capped the scoring as he delivered a pinch-hit RBI single.

Wagner was able to get a run back in the fifth. Tommy Mazurkiewicz started the inning with a fly to center that was dropped, putting him on second base. Two batters later, Dan Wasilick ripped a single to left to make it 3-1.

Bryant tacked on a run in the sixth. Anderson reached on a dropped third strike to start the inning, stole second and moved to third on a ground ball to the right side. He scored two batters later on a sac fly from senior Adam Claire (Litchfield, Conn.).

The Bulldogs received hits from four different individuals and Anderson scored a pair of runs.

Bryant and Wagner will wrap up their four-game series on Saturday with a 1:00 p.m. first pitch.